As long as I can remember, optical network access platform upgrades have offered potential buyers two choices: upgrade with a next-generation choice that is available now, or wait for a faster version available in a few years.
The choice of access platforms supported by 25 Gbps or 50 Gbps optical access platforms poses such an issue: upgrade now with backwards compatibility or wait for the next platform that offers more performance.
As always, some operators, faced with an immediate upgrade choice, are going to choose the existing standard. Others who can wait will often do so. Technologists often debate the merits of alternative choices.
But deployment remains a business issue. What must be done to maintain or improve market share, how much time is available to do so, what resources are available, what will customers demand, what will they pay, what are our competitors doing and where are we most vulnerable to share loss?
Some of you with longer memories will remember that debate about upgrades to 40 Gbps versus 100 Gbps. Network choices have changed as all telecom networks become data networks, but two decades ago the choices were shaped by backwards compatibility with the legacy telco networks versus upgrades more in tune with the way data network standards tend to progress (1, 10, 100, 1,000 times).
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